How Parallettes Helped Artur Learn to Enjoy the Process of Training and Make Real Progress

Artur was faced with that very challenge. He was frustrated that in spite of training hard toward certain physical goals, he felt he wasn’t getting any closer. After a bit of soul searching, he realized it was because he was floating from program to program.

When he finally committed to going through our Parallettes One program, he was gratified by his results.

“The most valuable thing I learned from P1 and from GMB was the ability to focus on what I was doing, and to trust the process. What I mean by focus is sticking to the program from the start to the finish. I could never do that before.”

The structure of P1, along with the additional support he got from being in our Alpha Posse membership program, helped Artur finally make serious strides toward his goals.

Getting Focused on Building a Foundation

Artur Figueredo is an engineering student, dedicated to his studies and to doing well at whatever he sets his mind to.

So when he set a personal goal to learn to do a Handstand Push-Up, he was frustrated – to say the least – when he could not seem to get any closer to that goal no matter how hard he tried using other training resources.

“The problem was that everything looked awesome to my eyes, but I was jumping from program to program, doing only maybe 3 weeks of each program, and I was really getting nowhere.”

When he started P1 and saw everything laid out for him in a logical manner, Artur saw the roadmap to building the strength he’d need to reach his goals, and felt empowered to stay on course.

P1 is organized so you can see what you’ve accomplished and what’s coming up..

Though Handstand Push-Ups are not part of the P1 curriculum, many of the inversions and pressing exercises provide a good foundation for those more advanced skills.

And building that foundation, taking a break from his purely goal-oriented approach, is what helped Artur make real progress.

Quality Over Quantity

One of the biggest benefits Artur got from working through P1 was a shift in mindset and how he viewed his progress with any one exercise.

“[I learned] not to worry too much about the sets and the reps. The goal of P1 and some of the things that the trainers taught me [in the Alpha Posse forums] is that I should do my best rep possible with every exercise.

The goal wasn’t to just do the reps, build volume, and grind the last reps like some other programs. The goal was to make every rep of every exercise the prettiest I could, and if anything was getting sloppy or if I was getting unfocused or distracted, I should stop, rest, and do another set with my best effort again.”

Before P1, Artur was focused on learning the Handstand Push-Up without emphasizing the quality of his movements.

When he slowed down and let go of his Handstand Push-Up obsession for a while, Artur was able to focus on improving the quality of his movements with P1, and as a result, he built greater strength and control than he ever expected to.

Watching Artur’s progress through P1, there’s no question his dedicated practice paid off, and that he successfully and progressively built the skills taught in the program.

Learning to Enjoy the Process

Like most people with a goal – physical, mental, career, life – Artur’s narrow focus for a long time was on reaching that goal. The way he jumped around from one program to another, though, is indicative of how little he was really enjoying the journey to get there.

P1 wasn’t a magical fix for him, of course, but it did make it easier to stay on track even through those difficult moments we all face along the way.

And what helped Artur even more was having a supportive community to cheer him on.

“I learned how to appreciate the small wins. For exemple, before doing Phase 1, and even after a lot of previous work before, I still struggled to do a quality push-up. When I started focusing on form and seeing great results, and people from Alpha Posse started to congratulate me on my form and such, I then started to believe more in myself and in the work I was putting in. That was super important to my overall development. I knew that if I put in the work and did the best I could, results would come no matter what.”

Artur logged his work diligently and got feedback and support from GMB trainers and fellow Alpha Posse members.

With the encouragement of his fellow community members and our GMB trainers, Artur learned to take pride in his accomplishments, even when they weren’t necessarily directly related to his particular target.

Celebrating those “small wins” kept Artur motivated to trust the program and keep at it for its duration.

Artur’s Surprising Physical Benefits from P1

It’s no surprise that being consistent with his training led Artur to good results. It’s pretty much a given that if you’re consistent with something, you’ll get better at that thing.

What was surprising, though, were some of the specific benefits Artur experienced by the end of his 12-week cycle with P1:

Handstand Push-Up – Even though this skill is not taught in P1, and Artur was not training specifically for it while going through the program, the all-around strength he built with the program helped him achieve a solid, full range of motion Handstand Push-Up negative, plus multiple wall-supported Handstand Push-Ups, by the end of P1.

Pull-Ups – This one was pretty unexpected for Artur, considering P1 has no pulling movements in it. Many people are actually concerned that their pulling strength will suffer while going through P1, but Artur is proof that the movements in the program strengthen the entire upper body in general and help you maintain – or in Artur’s case, increase – your pulling strength as well. Artur went from 8-10 solid pull-ups before P1, to a minimum of 15 solid pull-ups after P1.

Physique Benefits – Artur’s newfound focus and consistency with P1 spurred him on to clean up his nutrition a bit and lose a little extra weight he’d wanted to shed. Though not a direct result of P1, staying consistent with the program and getting extra encouragement from the Alpha Posse helped Artur improve his physique by the end of the 12-week program.

Artur’s experience and results demonstrate the value in sometimes taking a break from training exclusively for a particular goal, and building general strength for a while. A foundation of strength and control will take you far.

What’s Next for Artur?

So what comes after building that foundation of strength?

For Artur, the next step was taking that strength further and moving on to our Rings One program. His goals for the coming year are to get a strict muscle-up, and of course, to continue working on the Handstand Push-Up.

He’s also decided to take some time to prioritize his mobility with our Focused Flexibility course, so that his movement restrictions don’t get in the way of his goals.

We all get our motivation for training from different places, but the key is finding an approach that fits your motivations. For Artur, Parallettes One was the perfect fit for his “why,” and it helped him get in touch with his personal underpinnings for training.

Finding that motivation and staying consistent aren’t easy things to do, but when you find a program that helps you get in touch with that, it’s a good thing to hold on to.

The emphasis on skill development in our Parallettes One program will help you learn things about yourself you couldn’t otherwise learn.

The overall strength you’ll build with the program will give you a foundation to move on to whatever goals you have.

The structure of P1 will keep you on task for the duration of the program.

Build Essential Pressing Strength

Parallettes One includes 3-4 months of pressing and inverted exercise, scalable to any fitness or experience level. It builds the foundation of strength and control for more advanced skills.